Editing Zuid-Beveland (section)

== History ==

=== Third and fourth centuries ===
This was the period during which most of [[Zeeland]] appears to have been submerged. The area was and for several centuries would remain almost unpeopled.

=== Middle Ages ===
During the eleventh century the area began to be drained, as little by little [[polder]]s and channels were developed to protect the fields between them. Once drained, salt levels began to reduce and the soil became very fertile. Agriculture developed and prosperity grew.

In the thirteenth century villages and towns began to appear. People lived chiefly from farming and fishing. The commercial centre of Zuid-Beveland was [[Goes]], but [[Reimerswaal (city)|Reimerswaal]] to the east, which later would be destroyed by floods also played an important role at this time.

=== The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ===
As a result of the [[St. Felix's flood]] in November 1530, much of the island disappeared under water. Towns and villages were lost to what became known as the [[Verdronken Land van Reimerswaal|drowned land of Zuid-Beveland]] (''Pays inondé de Zuid-Beveland / Verdronken Land van Zuid-Beveland'').<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.natuurmonumenten.nl/natuurgebieden/verdronken-land-van-zuid-beveland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203040703/https://www.natuurmonumenten.nl/natuurgebieden/verdronken-land-van-zuid-beveland |title=Verdronken Land van Zuid-Beveland |language=nl |publisher=Natuurmonumenten |date= |archive-date=3 December 2023}}</ref> The island was again badly impacted forty years later in November 1570 by the [[All Saints' Flood (1570)|All Saints' Day Flood]] (''Allerheiligenvloed'' / ''Inondations de la Toussaint'').

Between 1568 and 1648, during the course of what by its weary end had become the [[Eighty Years' War]], the surviving lands of Zuid-Beveland were frequently in the military theatre of operations.

=== The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ===
During most of this period the economy of the Netherlands slowed or contracted, with the exception of the agricultural sector. However, the region benefited from advances in transportation, connected in 1868 to [[Roosendaal]] by railroad with the inauguration of the Zeeland Line (la ''Zeeuwse Lijn'': la «Ligne zélandaise»), the [[Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway]]. In 1850 work began on the [[Canal through Zuid-Beveland|Zuid-Beveland Canal]] which linked the [[Western Scheldt]] and the [[Eastern Scheldt]] across a narrow neck of land in the east of the province.

The construction in 1871 of the [[Sloedam]], topped off with a roadway and a railway track, across the old [[:fr: Sloe|Sloe]] Channel, connected Zuid-Beveland with [[Walcheren]].

=== World War II ===
On 16 May 1940, heavy fighting occurred near Kapelle between German and French motorised troops, who came to the rescue of the Dutch. The next day 65 French soldiers were buried by the local people.
After [[World War II]] every French soldier who was killed in the Netherlands during the war was brought to Kapelle. On 16 May 1950, the military cemetery on the edge of town was officially opened. 217 French soldiers, 20 Moroccan soldiers in French service and 1 Belgian soldier were buried there.

The area was liberated by British and Canadians during the [[Battle of the Scheldt]] in November 1944.

=== The Flood of 1953 ===
The [[North Sea flood of 1953|North Sea flood]] on the night of 31 January and the morning of 1 February 1953 caused 1,836 deaths in the southwest of the Netherlands. Because of the relative high altitude, most parts of Zuid-Beveland (mainly the area of Goes) were relatively safe. In particular the eastern part of the peninsula suffered from floods. To prevent future floods, the [[Delta Works]] were started in 1950. As a side-effect, the connection with the rest of the country improved too.